Surveying the Field

This is the next chapter in The ShambElla Saga.

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Surveying the Field

The goons, Siris, and Sam cleared the landscape of imps. Their remains lay all about, resting in peace and pieces.

“I kinda feel sorry for the little buggers, Sam,” Siris said. “They don’t seem to be too smart, or even aware.”

“I know what you mean, buddy,” Sam replied.

Ella and David walked up beside them.

“Why doesn’t another dragon come, you think?” Sam asked.

“I think the red one was the embodiment of anger," Ella said. "A rash actor, and good for us it was. Otherwise, we would’ve been unable to slay it. But the other two, I’m guessing, are different.”

Ella was becoming aware of an inexplicable but synchronistic understanding of what was unfolding before her.

This had something to do with her link to David, and his burgeoning grasp of the ancient language, the deep magic.

She recalled a line from a book she read as a kid but couldn’t quite place its origin.

Do not cite the deep magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.

“I think we’ve been dealing with sin,” Ella said. “Sam, you saved me from the Lust of men who would harm me. Siris had to overcome Sloth which made him slow to do the right thing out of fear of reprisal from forces greater than himself. David had to overcome his Envy of what others had which he did not. The Beast was hunger, the devourer, Gluttony. The dragon was Wrath. But what was the Giant?”

“Despair,” said Sam. “Canonically, there were once eight cardinal sins, but some pope removed despair from the list, and the other seven stuck. Ma always told me despair could and must be overcome. The fog from the giant’s mouth was despair, for sure. That leaves Greed and Pride.”

“So those two dragons must be… Greed and Pride?” Siris said.

“Maybe,” Sam said. “But we’re about to deal with the ultimate trickster, and I wouldn’t expect anything to go the way we anticipate. It might, it might not.”

“I think they are waiting for us to come to them,” Ella said.

Colt nodded and pointed that way.

They walked on.

***** * *****

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